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Thursday, November 17, 2011

autumnal addictions

Lately I've been going a little nuts with fall baking. All summer I was a very good girl, avoiding the oven as far as baking sweet treats goes, instead exploring veggie-filled recipes and sweetening things with fruit rather than sugar. It was good while it lasted. [No, really, it was!] It trained me [at least a little] to seek out healthy snack options. Right now my go-to is Greek yogurt + homemade applesauce - naturally sweet with good protein to boot

However, the minute it started to turn cold all I wanted to do was bake. Since it's fall, I'm all about the pumpkin and squash. This is how I spent much of October and November:

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal. Skipped the baking in oven part and just made it on the stove. Dee.lish.uss. Mmmm.

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread. Typically this is a fave; I put the whole thing in a Bundt pan and bake for 70 min. This year I made it healthier by subbing half the oil for applesauce and reducing the sugar...turns out I like the full fat + sugar version better.

Pumpkin Granola. The oats didn't turn out crispy, but it makes an awesome breakfast when covered in milk and heated in the microwave.

Pumpkin French Toast. This was an epic failure. Evidently the places I strayed from the recipe were crucial, as my final product was more mush than toast. Oops.

Pumpkin Spice Pull Apart Bread. Note to self: next time try to avoid adding too much flour. Hubs assures me it's still really good and was hard-pressed to let me share any, but still, no photo.

Squash Ravioli. This tastes great. But maybe you shouldn't skip the "remove with slotted spoon and dry on paper towel" part at the end. They all stuck together and didn't look very ravioli-ish, however, still yum.

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Wow. Listing them all out makes me feel a little more crazy than before. But the first step to recovery is admitting, right?

I have a winter squash addiction. [and maybe an inability to follow recipes] There, I said it. Now...do you have any favorite recipes I need to try? :-)